"The" Sex Issue of Cosmopolitan Magazine
I had to laugh when I saw the most recent cover of Cosmopolitan magazine, sitting on the stand of my local Barnes & Noble, which had the words "The Sex Issue" stamped on its glossy cover.
The sex issue? It's a running joke, even among Cosmo's most loyal readers, that every issue of the magazine is the sex issue. If you look at the past examples of Cosmo covers, you'll see that the word "sex" is always the biggest, boldest word on the page, and that the articles about sex, from issue to issue, are so similar that the editors' efforts to make one sound more unique and outrageous than the other results in hilarious and absurd headlines ("THE SEX ARTICLE WE CAN'T DESCRIBE HERE!"). Usually, the articles are variations on two themes: (1) "The Fifty Greatest SEX Tips of ALL TIME" and (2) "SEX Moves That Will Drive Your Man Wild."
If you don't believe me, take a look at some of the more recent Cosmo covers:
Ironically, Cosmo was founded as a family magazine in 1886. It later became a literary magazine, featuring contributions from Jack London, Rudyard Kipling, Upton Sinclair, George Bernard Shaw, and Sinclair Lewis.
But, by the late 1960s, riding the tide of the Sexual Revolution--and contributing to it--it transformed into a women's magazine under the editorship of Helen Gurley Brown, who wrote the 1962 book Sex and the Single Girl. She believed that women could have it all, "love, sex, and money," a point of view that reverberated through the articles she commissioned for Cosmopolitan and still does today. By the time Brown left the magazine in 1997, the magazine ranked sixth at the U.S. newsstands and number one at college book stores. Even back then, in the late Nineties, I remember the articles being as sexually explicit--and repetitively so--as they are today.
It's obviously a formula that works. The magazine's circulation is over 3 million in the United States alone. By way of comparison, Newsweek's circulation is 1.5 million and its audience is much broader than Cosmo's narrow base of young female readers. The question that puzzles me is why does that formula work? I understand that sex sells, but don't women get tired of reading the same article over and over again? When I tried to look into this question--by Googling "Why are all issues of Cosmo about sex?"--the first hit that came up was, of course, an article from the very magazine in question on the topic of "75 Crazy-Hot Sex Moves." Go figure.
Another irony here is that articles like "75 Crazy Hot Sex Moves" and the other sex pieces that perennially appear on Cosmo's covers are always about how you, the young female reader, can better pleasure your man with hot new sex moves. Brown wanted to empower her readers, but these pieces do little more than cast women as sex objects that should please men--the same way that, on an interpersonal level, college women are cast as sex objects by frat brothers and the most predatory of men in the hook-up culture, which I witnessed in college and have written about. Women willingly participate in that culture, complain about it later, and loyally continue reading the latest issue of Cosmopolitan. Go figure.
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Comments:
May '10
Re: "The" Sex Issue of Cosmopolitan Magazine
Contrary to what you might think if you get your information solely from the Evangelical Protestant "family ministry" lecture circuit, pornography is more than nasty pictures and videos, and it is not only men who have prurient interests.
Jun '10
Re: "The" Sex Issue of Cosmopolitan Magazine
Paul Snively
I see you're unfamiliar with "being famous for being famous." Moving to LA will remedy that quite rapidly. · 49 minutes ago
You mean I can make money and be famous without actually doing anything? We're a little behind the times here in flownover country.
Jun '10
Re: "The" Sex Issue of Cosmopolitan Magazine
David Williamson: I would buy it to find out which nine foods burn fat, so that I can feel great, naked.
Btw, who is Khloe Kardashian? - wasn't she a character in Star Trek? · 12 minutes ago
Klingon, I believe.
Aug '10
Re: "The" Sex Issue of Cosmopolitan Magazine
Deconstruction isn't so hot in bed.
Or so I'm told, anyway... your results may vary.
Aug '10
Re: "The" Sex Issue of Cosmopolitan Magazine
Source: Business Time by Flight of the Conchords (the sexiest song ever written.)
Apr '11
Re: "The" Sex Issue of Cosmopolitan Magazine
I was teaching Health last year to 10th graders, and as a part of the school's initiative to promote reading we had 20 minutes of silent reading twice a week. Most of the students would come prepared with a book but for those that didn't I tried to provide a variety of good magazines, my favorite was National Geographic--despite their left leanings.
One day I came across a stack of "Women's" magazines and scooped them up for the young ladies in my classes. I am so glad I took a little time to thumb through them because I found that in Cosmo you could learn how to improve fellatio techniques and how to prolong an orgasm. I was horrified but not as much as if I had hurriedly just put them out for the kids to read.
I am only 51 but I feel like you would have had to go to some pretty seedy places to get that information 30 years ago. But, today you can pick it up at your supermarket next to the candy bars and disposable lighters. How evolved we have become. Who has a war on women again?!
Aug '10
Re: "The" Sex Issue of Cosmopolitan Magazine
I'd like to see some statistics to see what percentage of the employees at women's magazines are gay men.
May '10
Re: "The" Sex Issue of Cosmopolitan Magazine
Tina Fey mentions this to a degree in her book Bossy Pants. The understanding of what is beautiful and sexy is changing. According to Fey, "now every girl is expected to have Caucasian blue eyes, full Spanish lips, a classic button nose, hairless Asian skin with a California tan, a Jamaican dance hall ass...the hips of a nine-year-old boy, the arms of Michelle Obama, and doll tits. The person closest to achieving this is Kim Kardashian, who was made by Russian scientists to sabotage our athletes. Everyone else is struggling."
Aug '10
Re: "The" Sex Issue of Cosmopolitan Magazine
LOL! That's good enough to be a P.J. O'Rourke line.
May '10
Re: "The" Sex Issue of Cosmopolitan Magazine
You just knew it was coming...
Apr '11
Re: "The" Sex Issue of Cosmopolitan Magazine
tabula rasa
David Williamson: I would buy it to find out which nine foods burn fat, so that I can feel great, naked.
Btw, who is Khloe Kardashian? - wasn't she a character in Star Trek? · 12 minutes ago
Klingon, I believe. · 10 minutes ago
Apr '11
Re: "The" Sex Issue of Cosmopolitan Magazine
OMG!!! You crushed it this time Mr. Hill.
Edited on April 10, 2012 at 8:02pmApr '11
Re: "The" Sex Issue of Cosmopolitan Magazine
Misthiocracy
I'd like to see some statistics to see what percentage of the employees at women's magazines are gay men. · 9 minutes ago
Very good point!
Jun '10
Re: "The" Sex Issue of Cosmopolitan Magazine
Letter of Protest to Ricochet Management:
I worked hard yesterday to put together a post on a serious subject that was moved to the Main Page. Boy, did I feel great.
Then I open up Ricochet today to find that Emily has dropped in a post that includes copies of seven (count 'em: seven) covers from Cosmo. Talk about sucking all the air from the room.
P. S. Try not to notice that I've made a few comments already on this thread. It is an interesting subject. But it's JUST NOT FAIR!!
We just can't compete with that.
Titillatedly yours, TR
Aug '10
Re: "The" Sex Issue of Cosmopolitan Magazine
If she starts posting the same (slightly re-phrased) topic every month, then you can complain.
Edited on April 10, 2012 at 8:06pmMar '11
Re: "The" Sex Issue of Cosmopolitan Magazine
EJ's post is a CoC violation. For awesomeness.
May '10
Re: "The" Sex Issue of Cosmopolitan Magazine
At least the women on the covers are still facing the camera.
Jun '10
Re: "The" Sex Issue of Cosmopolitan Magazine
Pure genius. I'll bet we'll see a spike on Lileks.com. Then people will find they're looking at old Montgomery Ward catalogs, and go "What the h***, this is false advertising."
Edited on April 10, 2012 at 8:10pmJun '10
Re: "The" Sex Issue of Cosmopolitan Magazine
Women's sexuality is so very interesting, isn't it? I mean for all of us.
Just think about formal attire. Isn't it strange? Colors, cleavage, incredible variety (which is a big driver for men), jewelry, hair, perfume, high heels(!), etc. etc. etc.
Men are told it's "black tie" and that's it -- no more choices are allowed (or wanted really).
Why is this? Very, very mysterious. What hath God wrought?
Mar '11
Re: "The" Sex Issue of Cosmopolitan Magazine
Absolutely hilarious! Check that Like-o-meter.... this one is going to set records.